Field
Exemplary embodiments of the present invention relate to a display device including a static electricity discharge circuit.
Discussion of the Background
A display device typically includes a display panel for displaying an image and various driving devices to drive the display panel.
The display panel may include a plurality of pixels and a plurality of display signal lines connected thereto. Each display signal line may include a gate line transmitting a gate signal and a data line transmitting a data signal.
Each pixel may include at least one switching element connected to the display signal line, at least one pixel electrode connected to the switching element, and an opposed electrode facing the pixel electrode and applied with a common voltage. The switching element may include at least one thin film transistor, and the switching element is turned on or turned off according to the gate signal transmitted by the gate line. This configuration of the switching element is such that the data voltage transmitted by the data line may be selectively transmitted to the pixel electrode. The pixel electrode may be connected to a storage capacitor applied with the common voltage Vcst so as to maintain the charged voltage until a subsequent data voltage is applied after the switching element is turned off.
Wires transmitting various voltages for the driving of the display panel are disposed in a peripheral area of the display panel. For example, a storage signal wire transmitting the storage common voltage Vcst may be disposed in the peripheral area of the display panel.
The driving device includes a gate driver outputting a gate-on voltage and a gate-off voltage to the gate line to turn-on and turn-off the switching element, and a data driver outputting the data voltage to the data line to apply the data voltage to the pixel via the switching element when the switching element is turned on.
The gate driver and the data driver may be mounted on the display panel as chip types. However, to reduce a size of the display device and to improve productivity, the gate driver in particular may be integrated in the display panel by forming the gate driver and the switching element during the same process. The gate driver may include a plurality of gate driving circuits, functioning substantially as shift registers, connected to each other and arranged in a line, and wires transmitting various signals input to the gate driving circuits. The gate driving circuit may include a plurality of thin film transistors and a plurality of capacitors. The gate driving circuit is connected to the gate line to transmit the gate signal.
In the display device described above, static electricity may flow to the inner circuit of the display panel by friction generated during the manufacturing of the display panel or in a test process such as a visual test of the display panel. The flowed static electricity may damage the various electrical elements formed in the display panel. Particularly, in the display device in which the gate driving circuit is integrated in the display panel, when the wires near the gate driving circuit intersect and are disposed closely to each other, the static electricity may damage elements such as the wires or the thin film transistors.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the invention and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.